Your thoughts please. Cat S 996.

[Roman Moroni]

I've been offered a MY 2001 (registered January 2002) Carrera 2 996 by the bloke who owns a (successful) local garage & MOT's my cars. It's mine for £10k. He told me that it's a Cat S write off, although I'd already guessed that when he told me the price. Mileage is 135k, its hard top, manual, navy blue, grey leather. Not known if it's had any work on the IMS bearing. 4 owners since registration.

The car was written off in 2019, which is confirmed on HPI. Apparently there was suspension & bodywork damage following an accident. He did all the repairs himself. The bodywork has been done to a very high standard.

I know he uses it quite a bit although he owns several other cars. Obviously he services all his cars himself but he did tell me that it had full Porsche history up until 2009 & Specialist companies up until he got it. The car itself will need a set of rears quite soon, it'll need a decent wash & brush up both inside and out. He's to happy to put a years MOT on it.

I know ultimately it's my decision to buy it or not, but I would value your imput.

TIA

[F6C]

For a written off cab with that mileage it's expensive, even in this crazy market.

Could still be a decent buy if it happens to be in stellar mechanical condition.

[julian987R]

Roman Moroni said:

I know ultimately it's my decision to buy it or not, but I would value your imput.

TIA

Bet you'll spend the price of the car yet again over the next few years. You'd look back and think why didn't I buy a non Cat S for 50% more in the first place.
re "The bodywork has been done to a very high standard." Smoke and mirrors. Its a wreck.
Lets face it, he is not on your Xmas card list is he?, so you can trust him as far as you can throw him.

[Haribo Lecter]

No reason to buy a write-off at the bottom end of the market. I can understand on a nearly new car but where prices are for 996’s I’d just buy one that’s not been wrapped round a pole for not much more money.

If a car’s had suspension damage then in my opinion you might never get it driving properly, even if everything looks ok. Speaking from experience of very minor suspension damage on a new 5-series after an accident, repaired by BMW and still wasn’t right.